This Jungian Life Podcast

Explore the fascinating concept of the 'wounded healer' in therapy, where personal pain becomes a source of empathy and connection. Discover how archetypes, like Chiron from Greek mythology, illustrate the transformative power of vulnerability in healing. The discussion also connects the struggles of characters in 'The Wizard of Oz' to self-discovery in psychoanalysis. Additionally, a dream analysis reveals complexities of race and privilege in a new living situation, weaving a narrative of impulsive choices leading to personal growth.

Guest T. Susan Chang is a writer, podcaster, and teacher of tarot, the most commonly recognized modern form of divination. The archetypal symbols in the tarot’s 78 card deck offer gateways to meaning and mystery. Jung says symbols act as transformers—life energy is converted from a lower to higher form by the amplification that consciousness provides. Tarot divination is intended to break from the mundane and court the numinous. It asks that we set logic aside, surrender doubt, and step unafraid into the space between realms. As with dreams, whatever arises will tell us something we don’t know and can use. Jung said that the “redeeming symbol is a highway, a way upon which life can move forward without torment and compulsion.” By opening ourselves to the inexplicable, we set forth on that highway with the intent of discovering our unique pattern for personhood and purpose in the world. A Two-Card Tarot ReadingThis week, in lieu of a dream interpretation, Susie agreed to do a two-card Tarot draw for all of us. The question we chose was dealing with uncertainty. The cards, visible on camera, were spread out face down, and she gently moved them around, picked up a few, and selected two. Turning them over revealed the Queen and Page of Wands, two court cards. As the Queen of Wands has an outgoing nature, she creates networks. This card indicated that we can seek support from others in a time of uncertainty. The youthful Page of Wands, at whom the Queen seemed to be gazing, has a quality of innocence and optimism as he looks outward. Altogether this draw indicates that we can choose our attitude toward uncertainty. The Queen of Wands suggests the possibility of connection with others, and the Page conveys a spirit of adventure. Referenceswww.tsusanchang.comBooks: Tarot Deciphered https://www.amazon.com/Tarot-Deciphered-Decoding-Esoteric-Symbolism/dp/0738764477/LOOK & GROW⁠⁠⁠⁠Join THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Do you have a topic you want us to cover?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠We've got totally NEW MERCH!⁠If you’ve been struggling in the dark trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.

Oliver Burkeman, author of "Four Thousand Weeks" and columnist for The Guardian, discusses the fleeting nature of time and its impact on fulfillment. He argues that embracing life's limitations can shift our perspective from endless productivity to genuine presence. The conversation touches on societal pressures and the illusion of busyness, emphasizing the need for meaningful interactions over mere efficiency. Burkeman invites listeners to reflect on their relationship with time, promoting a deeper connection to the present and the importance of authenticity.

Explore the fascinating interplay between human consciousness and the cosmos, as personal experiences enrich the collective unconscious. Delve into the transformative effects of archetypes in maternal relationships and the importance of self-reflection in making sense of emotions. Discuss the active engagement with the divine through suffering and how it leads to personal evolution. A thought-provoking dream analysis intertwines themes of identity and uncertainty, inviting listeners to uncover their own paths to understanding and self-discovery.

Although the concept of archetypes has philosophical ancestors, Jung’s theory was developed over time and rested on a foundation that was scientific and empirical. Research and experiment enabled Jung to establish the autonomous activity of the unconscious.He was then able to posit archetypes as a predisposition to form representations of universal human experiences and mythological motifs, such as marriage, the hero’s journey, and death/rebirth. For Jung, archetypes are innate psychic organs that “have a positive, favourable (sic), bright side that points upwards [and] one that points downwards…” Archetypes manifest spontaneously. In the collective, they are the driving force behind mass movements; in individuals, archetypes manifest most frequently as dream images that feel numinous and ‘other.’ Jung says, “The impact of an archetype, whether it takes the form of immediate experience or is expressed through the spoken word stirs us because it summons up a voice that is stronger than our own.” The power of an archetype can either possess us or inspire us.Here’s the dream we analyze:“Early morning dream, just before waking, and eerily similar but not the same as one I had several years ago about being shot in the heart and stomach area and killed by a stranger. This time, I was at home in my home office and heard someone entering through my back door. I may have wondered if it was my boyfriend, but he does not live with me, and I wasn’t expecting anyone. I went into the hallway to see who it was, and a man I’ve never seen before walked in. He had the energy of an intruder, and I felt scared. He looked right at me. His hair was white; his clothing was gray, his skin nearly colorless or ashen. His eyes and face were emotionless, without expression. He was oriented above me in my dream as if suddenly I had shrunk to the height of a small child looking up at him. I either asked or was about to ask who he was and what he was doing here. Without changing his blank expression, he pulled out a handgun and shot me, point-blank, in the stomach. This time, I woke up from the dream before I felt the bullet. The feeling was adrenaline-filled, fearful, angry, surprised, and confused. I had/have no idea who this man is or was, or what he represents.”LOOK & GROW⁠⁠⁠⁠Join THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Do you have a topic you want us to cover?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠We've got totally NEW MERCH!⁠If you’ve been struggling in the dark trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.

Explore how attention shapes our reality and influences personal growth in a world rife with distractions. The discussion dives into the attention economy, advocating for self-awareness and genuine connections. Dreams are revealed as powerful tools for understanding hidden emotions and navigating family dynamics. Personal stories highlight the transformative power of directed attention, while a vivid dream illustrates childhood anxieties and the potential for healing. Join a journey of mindfulness and the importance of prioritizing what truly matters.

In the first half of life, we strive to develop ego strength and achieve our dreams. To want, will, and work is worthwhile and adaptive--until a life dream, relationship, or identity fades or fails. Should we hang in and hang on - or let go? When does perseverance become pointless, or hope turn rancid in refusal to accept disappointment, defeat, or depression?In letting go, we relinquish our hard-won, heroic “I” and yield to an encounter with the unconscious. Jung says that although “I was afraid of losing command of myself…I let myself drop.” He came to realize that “This identity and my heroic idealism had to be abandoned, for there are higher things than the ego’s will, and to these one must bow.” Jung discovered, as may we, that in letting go something greater can meet and sustain us. HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:“I’m in a dining room. It’s in an older house with rooms like boxes for different purposes. There is the requisite brown wood dining room table. I’m not sure I should be in there. It feels old and used, and the air feels stale. I look up at there is a plain dark four-blade fan. It’s motionless. But I’m awe-struck by the ancient golden raven perched on the fan blade closest to me. I immediately knew it was the ancient raven. It was looking at me. It was large and had multiple layers of ancient golden feathers. Some big. Some small. Its many golden feathered tail hung down from the fan like a peacock. We just stared at each other. I knew deep inside this ancient raven was connected to me.”  REFERENCESC.G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, ReflectionsRandolphe M. Nesse, M.D. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings LOOK & GROW⁠⁠⁠⁠Join THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Do you have a topic you want us to cover?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠We've got totally NEW MERCH!⁠If you’ve been struggling in the dark trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.

In medieval times, the threshold was a plank that kept barnyard “threshings” outside the house. In the sciences a threshold is the limit of magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a definitive change to occur. In human development life stage thresholds are marked and recognized through ritual. In psychoanalytic work the symbol is the threshold—a visible but not literal representation that calls consciousness to apprehend a larger, unseen reality. Science fiction, mythology’s modern descendant, has richly storied this process as transition into a new world. The ambiguity and disorientation of this liminal situation requires the sacrifice of old attitudes and willingness to surrender to a new reality—a space of potential enlightenment. The ultimate goal is to recross the threshold and bring the symbolic experience home to consciousness. Here's the dream we analyze:“It is late at night and I find myself lying in a dark alleyway at the foot of a tall building. It seems I have just got married as I am dressed as a bride, in a bejeweled white dress. A fat woman with a very round face is looking over me with mean eyes. She is pulling my bridal jewelry off me, one by one. She tears my earrings away making my ears bleed, then the big nose pin, then my neck piece and so on. The woman looks into my eyes and says that my husband is dead. As she’s tearing the jewelry off of me, my bridal dress begins to wear out. I am unable to stop her. Suddenly, I find myself in the entrance hallway of what seems like a palatial old house. It is dimly lit. I am feeling drained. My bridal dress is all rags now, I can’t feel my feet. I look down and notice that both my feet are missing, it seems that they have been wrenched off of my legs. I am floating. I can sense that I’m in a watery world. My breath is draining out through my legs. I manage to float to the edge of the grand staircase and hold onto the post at the bottom. I look up and try to call out to my sister, who I know is sleeping upstairs. My voice is stuck. I am dying.”REFERENCES:Arnold van Gennep. Rites of Passage. https://www.amazon.com/dp/022662949X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_10TZ7PBV2KD9PBZ14DVJLOOK & GROW⁠⁠⁠⁠Join THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Do you have a topic you want us to cover?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠We've got totally NEW MERCH!⁠If you’ve been struggling in the dark trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.

Jung’s earliest dream, at age three or four, preoccupied him all his life, “in an underground chamber, a giant phallus stood erect on a golden throne.” Majestic and luminous, it struck him with terror that intensified as his mother’s voice cried out in warning. Phallos, the central archetype of a man's psyche, was once worshipped as sacred. Its urgent, dynamic, and fertilizing power was split off with the rise of ascetic monotheism and banished to the unconscious. Misplaced and maligned, it surfaces as resentful passivity, fear of passion, confusion of values, and reluctance to take action. Phallos is neither reducible to physicality nor synonymous with the patriarchal structures that have alienated men from their vulnerabilities and locked entire cultures into rigid hierarchies. When properly understood, Phallos can revitalize a man’s spirit and set him in vigorous relationship to himself and others. When wounded, it palls his potential.Here’s the dream we analyze:“I’m in a taxi, on my way to an old friend’s wedding on the high street where I live. I had on a great suit which everybody loved, but I had forgotten my tie. I realized I didn’t have time to go back home, so I went into the back room of a thrift shop which only had a selection of boring ties. As I came out, the shop was filling up with wedding guests. Then I found myself in a different, very gloomy, very cluttered thrift shop with no windows or seemingly a door. In it was a blonde woman, who I asked about ties. She pointed to a corner, and I found a couple more boring ties. I picked them up and laid them on a circular, cluttered table to get a better look in the gloom. I then realized on the table was a larger pile of ties, and to my astonishment, they were ones I had once owned but must have given away to the shop years earlier, still lying there. I told the woman, but she just shrugged. I went through them and found my favorite, which was a dark background with white circles on it. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.”REFERENCES:Iron John: A Book about Men by Robert Bly.https://www.amazon.com/dp/0306824264/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_H4265W9BKGA44JC3WJMWUnder Saturn’s Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men by James Hollis.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y2U9ARS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MX6Z6GB2933NNM78FM47Phallos by Eugene Monick. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0919123260/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Z2J86A205EYN5EK4T7FR LOOK & GROW⁠⁠⁠⁠Join THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Do you have a topic you want us to cover?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠We've got totally NEW MERCH!⁠If you’ve been struggling in the dark trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.

Delving into extroversion and introversion from a Jungian standpoint, exploring their influence on personality types and relationships. Discussing extroverted thinking and sensation, and the importance of differentiating psychological functions. Highlighting the positive reception of their book and sharing a dream about miscarriage. Exploring the connection between creative potential and fear.